• by Erin Everhart , October 2, 2026

In the south, college football is our religion, and for 13 weeks every fall, Saturday is our holy day. Weddings are planned around them. Strangers become friends, and friends become enemies during them. And every single one of them starts with a tailgate and a cooler.

I met my lifelong friends at the University of Florida. I also met friends there who I never learned their names. Friends who I stormed University Avenue with (four times). Friends who I painted my body orange and blue with. Friends who I hugged like family when the clock hit zero and the Gators had won it all. And as a millennial, I had a beer in my hand during most of those sporting events. Right or wrong, for me, that just feels right. 

So when I was pregnant at an Atlanta United game years later, I was a bit at a loss of what to do with my hands. I grabbed a Heineken 0.0, fully expecting to be disappointed, because every other non-alcoholic thing I tried was basically juice. But this? It tasted like beer. Like, actual beer. 

What stuck with me wasn't really the taste. It was that I still got to raise a glass when Atlanta scored. I cheersed the stranger next to me. I was still part of it.

Sports just brings people together. And in a time when it feels like we’re socializing less, listening to music in earbuds instead of festivals, and watching the game on our phones instead of with friends, aren’t we all craving just a little more friend time?

Heineken knows this first hand. From Formula 1 to the US Open, they're betting that shared passion is still one of the best cures for a lonely world. We sat down with Marketing VP Guilherme de Marchi Retz to hear how they’re bringing people back together.

Listen to the full episode here.